FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
March 31, 2006
Security (or Wet?) Blanket Policy
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured a front-page piece on how some large organizations are limiting access to Web services (subscription required) because of security concerns. That means that employees aren't able to use online tools such as instant messaging, Skype, Web email such as Gmail, and other tools.
Do you think this increases -- or hampers -- productivity? Take the Fast Company poll.
Posted by Heath Row at March 31, 2006 5:23 PM | Category: culture |
4 Comments
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Companies need to keep up. They need to find a secure method for their employees to access these services.
I agree with Andy - find a way to make it safe! I would bet that the availability of those tools increases productivity dramatically. As part of a global team, I constantly used IM to catch people when I needed a quick question answered. Sometimes those people are your customers too - so offering a "secure" internal option isn't good enough.
oh, c'mon, national security issues, corporate security issues be damned. Now it's time for the weasels in HR to come out of the closet with their super-spy software and open up on the troops who they have been spying on for years, anyway. Now they have a "legitimate" reason to do so: protect the corporate culture.
Anyone who has ever worked in the company 'hold' chained to the oars, knows that the box on your desk is screened by some low forheaded mouth breather in HR or MIS, secretly scanning your E/Mails and has been doing so for years. The powerless had become powerful when the boss who-never-gets-the-bad-news-first NEEDS to know what the troops are really thinking. What to do? Hire a snake..oops, snoop to tap into the boxes with software and read the mail. Now the do it to make sure the little worms in the hole are not secretly Al Queda.
Sure.
From what I have seen on this (haven't read the WSJ article), it is less about network security and more about privacy and compliance for the company. The network security issue is a moot point. YHOO, GOOG, MSN, etc. all do an excellent job of scanning emails (or IM) for malicious code. From the conversations that I have had with clients, this is a concern of companies if their employees are sharing propriatary information via untraceable means (public IM, Mail, VoIP, whatever). Sarbanes Oxley, SEC, you name the compliance requirment, it all needs to be documented. Thus, the concern about using public services at work.
As for productivity, this is up to the employer. How much do you want to ask your employees to give up in exchange for work?
Finally, as an advertiser, this trend could be concerning. What does this do to impressions and clicks?